Information
- Time and Date: 14:00-17:20 (JST), Monday, May 11, 2026
- Venue: IINO Hall & CONFERENCE CENTER＋Online (Live Stream)
(4F IINO BUILDING, 2-1-1 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) - Hosts: Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) / Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
Handouts
Opening Remarks
FUKAO Kyoji (Chairman, RIETI / University Professor, IER, Hitotsubashi University)
Session 1: Whose American Dream? Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants and Natives' Policy Preferences
Presenter
Hillel RAPOPORT (Co-director, CEPR Research and Policy Network (RPN) on Migration / Professor at Paris School of Economics (PSE))
Hillel Rapoport is Professor of Economics at the Paris School of Economics, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He is also scientific adviser at CEPII, senior research fellow at LISER, and research fellow at IZA, CESifo, Harvard CID and CEPR, where he is also the co-director of its Research Policy Network (RPN) on Migration.
Discussant and Session Chair
Prof. Okubo served as session chair in place of Prof. Martina Viarengo (originally scheduled).
Session 2: The Gender Dimension of Refugees' Integration in the Labor Market: Evidence from Switzerland
Presenter
Martina VIARENGO (Professor, Department of Economics Geneva Graduate Institute / CEPR Fellow)
Martina Viarengo is a tenured Professor in the Department of Economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of Geneva and Principal Investigator of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research. She is a Fellow at CEPR. Prior to joining the Graduate Institute's faculty, Professor Viarengo was an economist at the Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics and a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. Professor Viarengo is a specialist in public policy, labor economics and economic development. Her recent research focuses on international migration, labor markets and artificial intelligence. Professor Viarengo was awarded with the Eisenhower Fellowship. She was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Dr. Viarengo was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and she was named Newton International Fellow by the British Academy, Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering. She holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and a Master's Degree from Northwestern University.
Discussant
Session Chair
Session 3: Foreign-Native Wage Gap in Japan: Segregation by Visa Policy
Presenter
Discussant
KONDO Keisuke (Senior Fellow, RIETI / Associate Professor, Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University)
Session Chair
OKUBO Toshihiro (Faculty Fellow, RIETI / Professor, Keio University)
Session 4: Panel Discussion "Migration and Labor Market: What Can Europe and Japan Learn from Each Other's Experience?"
Panelists (Alphabetical order)
KAMBAYASHI Ryo (Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Musashi University)
After receiving his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Economics at the University of Tokyo in 2000, he has pursued a career as an empirical researcher in labor economics, with a sustained focus on the structure and transformation of Japan's labor market. His research examines long-term changes since the 1980s, analyzes the economic effects of institutional frameworks such as dismissal regulations, and explores the relationship between standard and non-standard employment. Through these studies, he has provided empirical evidence on wage differentials, employment practices, and evolving labor market dynamics, and has published extensively in leading domestic and international journals. In 2017, he published The World of Standard Employment, the World of Non-Standard Employment, a synthesis of his research that earned the Mainichi Economist Prize. In recognition of the overall scholarly impact of his work, he received both the Japan Academy Prize and the Ishikawa Prize in 2020. These honors attest to his significant contributions to the advancement of labor economics.
Hillel RAPOPORT (Co-director, CEPR Research and Policy Network (RPN) on Migration / Professor at Paris School of Economics (PSE))
Martina VIARENGO (Professor, Department of Economics Geneva Graduate Institute / CEPR Fellow)
Session Chair
TAMURA Akihiko (Senior Advisor, RIETI / Director General, JETRO Paris)
Akihiko Tamura has been Senior Advisor of RIETI (Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan) since November 2023 and Director General of the JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) Paris Office since August 2023.
Prior to being posted in Paris, he was Councillor for TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), Cabinet Secretariat, the Government of Japan. He spent more than 30 years at METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan) serving, among others, as Director-General for Trade Policy, Chief Negotiator for RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), Deputy Director-General for Trade Policy, Councillor for APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), Director for DDA (WTO Doha Development Agenda) NAMA (non agricultural market access) and Environmental Goods negotiations.
Aki was also Legal Officer of Legal Division, WTO and First Secretary at the Embassy of Japan to the United States. He also worked in Beijing as General Manager at Japan-China Economic Association. Moreover, he used to be Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Visiting Fellow of Law Faculty, University of Hong Kong.
Aki earned a Bachelor of law (LL.B.) from the University of Tokyo, a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School and a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) from George Washington University Law School.
Closing Remarks
Beatrice WEDER DI MAURO (President, CEPR / Professor, Geneva Graduate Institute)
Beatrice Weder di Mauro is the President of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Co-Director of the Hoffmann Centre for Global Sustainability and holds the André Hoffmann Chair of Economics, Climate, and Nature Finance at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Previously, she was a Research Professor at INSEAD Singapore (2015-2022) and a Professor of Economics at Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany. From 2004 to 2012, she was a member of the German Council of Economic Experts. She continues to advise governments, international organizations, and central banks, including the European Commission, the governments of Germany and Switzerland, the ECB, Deutsche Bundesbank, and the IMF. She has served on the boards of major global companies such as Roche, UBS, and ThyssenKrupp, and currently sits on the boards of Unigestion and Bosch. Her research focuses on macroeconomics, financial crises, and climate and nature finance.
